Syria’s Oilfield Nightmare Grows Bigger by the Day

The hard-to-define conflict in Syria has created a nightmare in the nation’s oil fields, especially near the city of Deir al-Zor in the northeastern part of the country. A May 30 wire service report quoted Syrian Oil Minister Suleiman Abbas as saying that oil production in Syria was almost at a halt, and natural gas production was down by half because of the civil war.